be quiet! Dark Power Pro 850w ATX PSU

Conclusion

With its electroplated finish, excellent modular cabling system and great performance, the 850w Dark Power Pro is every bit as good as its 650w brother - and then a little more. During our testing the unit proved to be extremely quiet all the way up to 75% load and only started to make any really noticeable noise at 100%. Efficiency levels were also extremely good with the unit managing between 85-87% once a reasonable load was applied to the unit.

Voltage stability was also reasonable with the unit managing to hold extremely tight regulation all the way up to 75% load and only dipping slightly past this point. Unlike some PSU's we've tested recently, be quiet! have not heavily over-volted the rails in an attempted to make the performance look better to the casual user, but have instead just concentrated on delivering good performance from the outset. We can imagine some enthusiasts may turn their noses up at voltages dipping to 11.68v on one of the rails, but when you consider that this is only 0.20v lower than at 25% load, it puts the stability of the unit into perspective a little more.

Retailing for around £130 over at Ebuyer.Com the Dark Power Pro 850w comes in at a reasonable price point, positioning the unit between the likes of likes of Cooler Master, Enermax and Antec.

It's undeniable that these psus are good, with the quality that comes with the packaging etc to boot.

I do think they`ll get overlooked tho with the prices they attach to them.

Yeah the 650w is certainly quite a bit above what is deemed acceptable, but thankfully the 850w sits roughly in the middle of the pack price wise. Sure there are some real cheap 850w units out there...but there is certainly a reason for it...even if they do have a good brand name attached.

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